[QUOTE=JER;7554426]
Exactly. And I’d extend that to those penguin coats as well. The point of those is what? An expensive tradition? Why?
Dressage is supposed to be about the horse. The rider should be dressed in appropriate clothing for the task required, and the rider shouldn’t distract from the focus on the horse’s movement.
I’m thinking of hosting a bonfire for top hats and shadbellies. Think of it as the 21st century equestrian version of a 1970s bra burning. For entertainment, there’ll be a concurrent screening of Midnight Cowboy, for those whose lives are still incomplete without having seen it.
:)[/QUOTE]
I agree with you on that bonfire, and if you can chuck the show jumping hunt coat on there as well, you will be my hero forever and ever. :yes:
How different this conversation is (so far) from that a few years ago when the tradition (I guess it was) of top hats was considered nearly sacrosanct. Even though riders were allowed to wear helmets, almost none did.
So this thread will probably now devolve away from helmets … but really, helmets are a good topic. The more broadly helmets can continue to spread throughout all disciplines, the better.
More and more western speed-event riders, and games riders, are wearing helmets instead of the western hat. I think a helmet is becoming a sort of badge of honor that they are Serious Competitors, riding so hard they might even come off the horse in a fall hard enough to get a head injury! That is a great way to socialize helmets into that world. 
Every year there are heartbreaking stories in the western riding world of children dying from falls, usually younger elementary age. I’ve seen several stories of a child riding quietly across a parking lot when a spook or something occurred, and the child came off in a fatal fall onto the pavement.
Given the child’s smaller size, there is more distance and time to the ground for them to rotate during the fall and have the head strike harder, than larger adults who tend to land on their sides or shoulders. It is inconceivable to me that a parent has some silly reason - usually appearance-based - why they don’t require their children to wear a helmet on every ride.
I know many professionals even in the “english” world have a deep well of excuses for not wearing helmets every time they ride. I think one of the real reasons is because some ride so many horses every day, they would be wearing it most of the day. Helmets have come so far in the fit and comfort department in the last few years, hopefully that progress will continue to banish those excuses. The pros with a lot of amateurs and juniors in the barn are role models, whether they wish to be or not. If they are seen schooling a horse on the flat with no helmet - in that group, it becomes ok to school a horse on the flat with no helmet, no matter how many times the pro may say ‘do as I say, not as I do’.
